There’s always a lot going on in the world, but since the last post a number of significant events have transpired. I’m not going to go into them as I’m sure you’re aware of what’s going on. All technologies are applied to warfare and are often the leading or early adopter of emerging technologies as countries and companies invest to develop ‘better’ ‘smarter’ weapons. It was ever thus.
Two of the leading AI companies – OpenAI and Anthropic – have made different decisions of late. I went to their sites to have a look at what they mention in their About page.
OpenAI – OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company. Our mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.
Anthropic – Making AI systems you can rely on
Anthropic is an AI safety and research company. We build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.
Essentially Anthropic have stated that they will not allow their technology to be used without limits in military technology.
Anthropic says it ‘cannot in good conscience’ allow Pentagon to remove AI checks
“Anthropic said Thursday it “cannot in good conscience” comply with a demand from the Pentagon to remove safety precautions from its artificial intelligence model and grant the US military unfettered access to its AI capabilities.”
The link embedded in the quote leads to the statement from Anthropic.
The article also makes it clear that their technologies have already been used in the attack on Venezuela, and that it is appearing to make decisions about drone strikes.
“The growth of autonomous weapons technology, such as drones that can carry out operations even after their connection to a human operator has been severed, has also intensified longstanding concerns around how AI will be used in life-and-death situations.”
I believe that this is an aspect that many people will be concerned about. Will it minimise ‘collateral damage’? That means civilians. No war is going to be clean in its current format. If people bomb then people die and that may well include people who weren’t the intended target.
Anthropic have made a statement of intent. The response from Donald Trump was that he directed all Federal Agencies to “IMMEDIATELY CEASE” all use of the technology from Anthropic.
Not long after OpenAI founder Sam Altman announced that his company had agreed a deal with the Pentagon for their technology to be used.
Trump orders US agencies to stop use of Anthropic technology amid dispute over ethics of AI
US military reportedly used Claude in Iran strikes despite Trump’s ban
It now seems that people are turning to Claude from ChatGPT as a direct result of the stand taken.
Anthropic’s AI model Claude gets popularity boost after US military feud
They’ve also made it a lot easier to switch by allowing the memory of the previous system to be uploaded to Claude. Some users find the memory system very helpful. I’ve certainly used it. Others prefer their responses to be ‘untainted’ by what the system knows of them.
And today I read that the deal that OpenAI made with the Pentagon has been amended. This is how the Guardian reported it. As always, full article below via the link.
OpenAI is amending its hastily arranged deal to supply artificial intelligence to the US Department of War (DoW) after the ChatGPT owner’s chief executive admitted it looked “opportunistic and sloppy”.
The contract prompted fears the San Francisco startup’s AI could be used for domestic mass surveillance but its boss, Sam Altman, said on Monday night the startup would explicitly bar its technology from being used for that purpose or being deployed by defence department intelligence agencies such as the National Security Agency (NSA).
OpenAI amends Pentagon deal as Sam Altman admits it looks ‘sloppy’
I cannot focus on all aspects of AI and it’s not the scope of this blog to comment on everything. In light of the above I’ve had a look at Claude, but I’m not paying money to either currently. I am no different from many – I am influenced by the choices that companies make. I try to do what I believe is ‘right’, whatever that means to me at the time. It will be interesting to use another platform and I’ll report my findings.